Pizza and the love for the savoury taste has become a part of our everyday conversation in the School-age 3 room. Almost every other day while we have snack, a few of the children always ask if pizza would ever be an option for snack and so we thought why not do that by ourselves and make one of our own! We sat down one day as we took a pole on the kind of toppings everyone would prefer as they told me their top two. Iggy, Fred and Leo were adamant on just Pepperoni and cheese however Amilia, Eliora and Piper were more interested in bacon and pepperoni with cheese, which led us to deciding pepperoni and bacon as our top two options out of the five we had listed. The following week, we gathered around the table with all the ingredients. Amilia, Eliora and two other children volunteered to help me grate the cheese we had. We divided the 5 naan breads into halves for everyone to be able to make their own pizza. Following the instructions and recipe I wrote on the board, they started by spreading out the Marinara onto their bases, layering it with our grated cheese later and showering the wanted toppings on top in the way that they wanted. Once done, we went to the kitchen together as I put their pizzas in oven to bake according to their liking! While in the kitchen, we listened to songs and pretended for the half kitchen door to be a lemonade stand as Fred, Joey and Leo tried to sell lemonade to people passing by. Iggy in order to pass his time, sketched some red on a tissue and pretended to have a nosebleed. We kept checking on the pizza in the oven as I described to them how the back part of the oven gets hotter than the front so we had to flip the tray in between. Everyone was super proud of their pizza as they ate it with happy smiles on their faces and expressed how tasty it was. They found it super good or in their language, “Delicious and Nutritious” and “Finger-licking good”. The whole experience fostered conversations of expression amongst children, including discussions about the way they like their food and some of their experiences with it. The day helped us connect on a deeper level and build more empathy amongst the team. Moreover, children can express their creativity through recipe development and food presentation. Also, the kitchen can be a place to nurture a child's self-esteem, confidence and sense of self-worth. Teaching children to cook provides many opportunities to encourage and celebrate their work. Children feel a great sense of pride when they feel they've successfully prepared a dish for themselves or their family.
Pizza, pizza, on the way!
Hot and cheesy, here to stay!
Pepperoni, and bacon too,
Stack 'em high, we want a few!
Slice, slice, one for me,
Now we're having a pizza spree!
